Feeding Strays
by Abilxey
Summary: Scout is being forcibly dragged out of the infirmary screaming out his lungs and reaching out towards the broken body on the table. He feels the guilt swell up inside him as he realizes that because of his actions, this was inevitable. Why had it been so hard for him to let go?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: The following story was rated T for violence, adult themes and the use of strong language in intense and frustrating situations and occasionally with in casual dialogue.**

**I also don't own Team Fortress 2. Valve, please don't sue me.**

The brisk winter chill was becoming rather frigid, leaving Scout thankful he had upgraded his shorts and red T-shirt to longer and warmer pants and a red sweat shirt. The team had been stationed in Gold Rush to defend against the BLU team trying to blow their base up. Considering that his class was more meant to capture initial points and not really keep others for doing so, Scout was less than enthused about the week he was going to spend getting his ass kicked.

Though this didn't stop him from getting a smug grin on his face when he heard the Administrator announce that the set up time had begun. There was one thing he'd always look forward to when battling on particular maps. He shot straight out of the respawn, zipped right past the first check point, and kept sprinting until he was standing in front of the gate that had separated the BLU's spawn from the battlements. He couldn't help but smile as he pulled out the Atomizer, a wooden baseball bat with spikes around the end, and begun to continuously bash it against the gate.

"Need a dispensah here!" He yelled in the most obnoxious way possible. The enemy soldier taunted him by standing by and saluting him with his hand in an L shape. This actually got a slight chuckle out of Scout and he started beating on the gate more forcibly. "Need a telepotah here!"

His heart skipped a beat when he saw his rival, a young man of similar physical stature as Scout, ran toward the gate with a baseball bat in hand.

The two had a certain ritual they always preferred if the mission and environment allowed each other to face each other like this.

"Mission begins in thirty seconds," the Administrator announced.

Scout cracked his knuckles, "Ya ready to get yo ass dominated, pally?"

"No, are you?" His rival wasn't quite the best at making the most original comebacks. The two then continued on in beating the crap out of the gate.

"I'm gonna beat ya head in so hard, you'll feel it in the next respawn!" Scout sneered.

"Well, respawn's not going to be able to fix your face when I shoot that dumb smile off it!"

"With what aim, pally? Bonk!" Scout's could feel his heart pounding excitedly in his chest. Other members of both teams began to join in the beating of the fence, and hurling insults and threats at each other. Pyro madly smacked his axe against the gate mumbling incomprehensible words, along with Demo and the BLU Engineer shouting jeers at each other. Scout was beginning to feel the rush of adrenaline course through his body. He's rival had a crazed look in his brown eyes. They both couldn't wait to kill each other.

"Need a dispensah here!" Scout yelled out in his mad frenzy.

"Need a sentry here!" His counter part screamed back.

"Mission begins in ten seconds!" Scout's team mates begun to back away from the gate along with the BLU team getting out of sight of the spawn entrance by pressing close to the walls. Except the two scouts stood their ground and continued to beat the gate. They both nastily grinned at each other.

"Five..." The Administrator began counting down. His rival replaced his baseball bat with his scattergun to be ready for his attack, but Scout kept the Sand Man in hand though he was no longer beating on the gate with it.

"Four..." Scout planted his feet apart firmly on the ground. He pointed the Atomizer to the far wall of the BLU's respawn, like he was predicting where he'd hit a baseball that was being pitched to him. His rival cocked an eyebrow.

"Three... Two..." He brought the end of the Atomizer over his shoulder and bent his knees and quickly adjusted his arms to be in the perfect batting position.

"One..." The gate doors opened. The rival had aimed his Scatter gun at Scout but before he could pull the trigger Scout swung the Atomizer with as much force as he could. It struck his rival right in the temple and Scout could see his skull beginning to shape around it, and then released it as his body flew across the room and hit the far wall.

Scout couldn't help but break out into laughter after watching his rival fly through the air. "You su-" Was all he got to say before the enemy sniper sent a bullet through his brain.

A strong shiver ran throughout his body as he found himself standing in the respawn. He shot straight out of the doors, still feeling ecstatic about his amazing kill. Once he had reached the heat of the battle he felt ambitious enough to rush the enemy medic from behind while he was healing the BLU heavy. This didn't go too well though; he missed his first shot which had alerted the medic to defend himself. He immediately turned around and slashed Scout's guts open with his bone saw, and the heavy finished him off with his mini-gun. The second time he was taken out by a mini-sentry that he didn't see in time. Third time a pyro burned him to death.

With every death he's adrenaline rush was widdled away and was completely diminished when he was trying to bait out his rival from behind the cart so he could be taken out Engie's sentry only to have his rival get the better of him and shot him in the face. He sighed as he left respawn for the fifth time and moved towards the fight in a much slower pace.

"The cart is nearing a check point!" The Administrator announced frantically. This didn't motivate Scout to pick up his feet at all though, he knew that he wasn't going to be much help especially once that cart got in that choke point just past the check point. As he headed towards the fight he tried to assure himself that his team was holding them back and that Engie probably still had his sentry up, so they were still doing fine. As he approached the choke point he was just in time to see the engineer's level three sentry explode and see Engie's body falling from the second floor of the building he had set up in. As he looked around he realized that no one on his team was left on the battlefield.

"Ah crap," Scout muttered. The BLU pyro began to rush him with flames splurting out of the end of his flame thrower. Not wanting to be sent to respawn so soon, he took off running but not before the tips of the flames had gotten a lick of his clothing and decided it liked the taste and had completely engulfed him. He howled in pain as the flames were eating at his clothes and skin. He was running frantically to the nearest health pack but at the rate he was burning he wasn't certain he could make it, until he saw Heavy, Demo, and Pyro barreling towards him.

"Help!" he yelled. Heavy and Demo ran past him, quickly shooting down the pyro and unleashing hell on anyone who got near the cart. Pyro took a moment to put out his burning teammate with a quick compression blast from his flamethrower and then ran off to join the fight.

Scout sighed in relief and hollered a "Thanks" to the pyromaniac. Most of his hair had been singed off and his skin was painfully blistering. He made his way to the health pack that he had been sprinting towards which was located in the nook of the hallway that was right next to the end of the choke point. Picking it up had brought some relief to his burns, but it being one of the smaller ones he was still left in no condition to join the fight. There was a larger one up stairs that would certainly make him feeling like new and Scout set out towards the stairway in search of this wonderful resource.

The second level had a few openings that over looked the battlements which made them very good sentry placements. Scout expected that Engie would be making a rush to get up here before the BLU engineer did once he was recovered in the respawn.

The health pack was in the room farthest from the stairs. As Scout walked towards the entrance though, he heard a small rustling sound and careful footsteps coming from it, making him feel slightly unnerved. He's thoughts quickly raced through the possibilities of what it could possibly be. Perhaps one of his team mates had come up here to catch their breath from the fight, or maybe some scared little animal had gotten stuck up here, though he knew it was more than likely that it was an enemy spy that was waiting for the engineer to start up his nest. He tried to keep his breathing slow and calm and took careful measured steps as he neared the entrance way so that whatever was in the room, especially a spy, wouldn't be alerted to his presence.

Though as approached the entrance of the room he was stunned by a rather confusing sight.

There was a figure standing in the room. It was faced away from him and seemed to be timidly peeking out of the opening that overlooked the rest of the battlements. It was draped in a red jacket and wore green head wear which had registered in Scout's mind as Soldier, one of his fellow teammates, making him feel slightly relieved but that was quickly replaced with apprehension as his demeanor was quite suspicious and was most likely a disguised spy. Scout was about to rush him and take him by surprise but then other things about this character begun to register.

He noticed as he looked closer, the jacket had no class symbol and the head wear that Scout first assumed was Soldier's helmet, looked to be a filthy, green cap. The jacket also seemed to obscure his body, but it seemed to fit loosely on him, and from what he could tell compared to the Soldier he looked so... Small.

He'd never seen this person before in his life.

Scout straightened up, not quite sure what to do. Typically the team usually just killed strangers that showed up on base but mostly all the time the were messengers from the Administrator, and she's not real happy about that. And Scout had nothing against the Administrator, but he doubted that it had less to do with her value on human life and more of that most of the time they had small televisions surgically placed in their torsos, and that wasn't exactly cheap. Except this person didn't act like a messenger. It wasn't like one to waltz right up on the battlements, especially when there was a battle going on! People couldn't be that stupid, though then again most smart people probably wouldn't agree to have a mini-TV surgically placed inside them.

Scout very quietly took on step into the room. The stranger didn't take notice. The stranger wore shoes that had been worn down to the soles and the laces were almost completely deteriorated. Scout saw a sleeping bag that was unbundled and partially unzipped that had been hastily pushed into the corner, along with a backpack with a couple of canteens attached to it.

_A hobo, huh?_ Scout thought to himself. It wasn't necessary unheard of wanders stumbling upon Team Fortress Industries but it was an exceedingly rare occurrence considering that most of their bases where located in the middle of the Badlands, a not so person friendly environment.

He had an idea of what he had to do now though. Trespassers were not welcomed. He took a deep breath, almost like he was preparing himself for what he was about to do. He readied his gun and took a couple steps towards the intruder. His back straightened, clearly alerted to Scout's presence, but before he could turn around Scout instinctively pinned him to the wall, drawling out a surprised gasp from the hobo.

"Please, don't hurt me! I- I didn't know!" His voice was a lot higher than Scout expected it to be which forced him to take a moment to take a few breaths because he really didn't want to laugh.

"Sorry, pal," he said trying to hide any amusement that may try and work its way into his voice, "but we take trespassing very seriously." He took a moment to readjust his arms, which meant not holding down the intruder with as much force, to get the gun in the proper position to take him out, and at this moment the hobo saw his opportunity and somehow managed the strength to press of the wall. Before Scout could pin him back down, he spun around and expertly placed his hands on Scout's wrists and before he knew it Scout was face was smushed up against the wall. "What the -?!"

"Oh shit..." the trespasser could barely whisper once he noticed the gun in Scout's hand. "Okay, okay..." he took deep breaths," Just hear me out! I've been kind of lost for awhile and I was getting low on supplies. Last night I saw lights coming from here and I thought someone here could he-" As he talked Scout could feel him going for the gun, making the same mistake as he had before by not applying as much force as he moved his arms. Scout mirrored what the hobo did before and with ease pushed off the wall and had almost sent them both tumbling over each other with how much force he used. He grabbed at the intruder's wrist and the intruder caught the wrist with the hand that was holding the gun.

The trespasser's hands were trembling and he was panting heavily. For a moment, Scout was consumed by his large, brown eyes as he looked into his in search of some mercy. "I'm sorry, but please... I didn't mean to-"

Scout cut him off by driving his foot into his stomach. They both let go of each other as he doubled over in pain, and Scout kicked him again sending him stumbling back until he fell to the ground and hit his head on something. Scout smiled to himself. "I'm really sorry, pally, but there's just certain things we gotta do." He pointed the scatter gun right at the trespasser but as he looked up his smile had quickly disappeared.

When the intruder hit his head, messy, light brown hair had slipped out from beneath his filthy hat and fell down to his shoulders. Scout felt some color come into his cheeks as he could see that the intruder's chest slightly curved out through his loose-fitting jacket and it struck Scout like a fist why his voice was so high. This wasn't a guy...

He stepped closer towards her, with the gun still aimed on her. She didn't even move from where she landed, she was just frozen there. Her whole upper body moved as she breathed. Scout watched her eyes shift between him and the two barrels of the gun, trying to register what was happening, what was about to happen. Her eyes finally locked on his with a frantic flame of life dancing behind them, and he found himself unable to break away from that gaze.

He slowly walked forward, not realizing that his whole body was shaking, and he stopped when he was towering over her and the double barrel was pointed right between her eyes. She held her gaze with him for just another moment until she broke away to look down the barrels. He watched as the flames die way, and with a heavy sigh she looked down to the floor and closed her eyes. Her shoulders sloped downward, almost like every muscle in her body was suddenly relaxed.

Scout breathed in slowly, feeling as cold air fill up his lungs until it got to be so painful he swore they were going to burst. He could hear the words screaming in his mind,_ "Just pull the trigger! Just pull the damn trigger!"_ but his hands couldn't do it. The finger tips twitched as his hands resisted the orders of his brain. He felt his fingers getting stiff and the gun was getting heavier in his hands. _Did she really just give up?_

"God, you're pathetic," he muttered very quietly under his breath as he lowered the gun away from her. She looked back up at him forcing Scout to quickly avert his gaze and roughly bit down on his lower lip. _What the heck am I doing?_ He began to uncomfortably scratch the back of his head. "I- um..." From the corner of his eye he saw her get up on her feet and she begun to make a run for the exit. "Wait! No, no, no, don't go out there!" He holstered the gun and immediately ran up behind her and seized one of her arms with both his hands before she could run outside the room and presumably get her head blown off. "Listen to me!"

She didn't pull back like he expected her to. He felt her arm tense up as grabbed her, and her body instantly took to an intimidating battle stance. "You tried to shoot me!" She practically yelled exasperated.

Scout frantically held a finger up while shushing her before replacing it on her arm. "I- I did," He said breathlessly, "but the important thing is that I didn't. And I don't think I can say as much for the guys out there." The panicked flame was dancing in her eyes again. "So if you wanna get outta here alive, you gotta listen to me."

The floor beneath them rumbled, followed by the dying screams the heavy. "OUR CONTROL POINT HAS BEEN CAPTURED!"

The two of them exchanged nervous looks. "And it's about to get very hectic up here."

Her arm became more relaxed in his hands, and her stance had become much less fierce through out this exchange. With a shaking voice she uttered, "Okay... What do we do?"

Scout's eyes quickly scanned the room until his eyes fell on a large crate where the top was not fully closed. "Here!" Scout dashed over to the crate and dug his fingers in between the cracks until the lid gave and they had access to crate that had been emptied awhile ago. "Get in, and try to stay here until I get back," he ordered as scrambled about to grab the things she'd left in the corner and tossing them in the crate. She stumbled toward it timidly, and placed her hands on its ledge. It was a fairly large crate; its height went up barely past her waist. Scout begun muttering for her to hurry up as the sounds of war drew closer. She managed to hoist her waist over its ledge and quickly swung her legs over.

"Thank you," she said as she dropped down, "This is- this is very kind."

A slight grin began to work its way onto Scout's face as her gratitude caught him off guard. "Ah well, you know... I'm-" Another explosion rumbled the building and made him remember that this was not the time to be pumping his ego, "Never mind." He grabbed the top and begun trying to put it back.

"My name's Lyra by the way," she quickly spoke up, but Scout's mind was too busy panicking about what was going right outside and how the lid wasn't going on correctly to fully register what she said.

"Uh, Scout," he quickly replied. The lid slipped from its position which led him to having to restart putting it back on.

"Scout..." she said rather thoughtfully to herself. Scout gasped excitedly as the lid finally fit into the ridges. She spoke up a bit, "That's a nice nam-" Scout had slammed the lid on her, sighing in relief that that was over for now.

_That's not even my real name_, he thought to himself. He grabbed the pack that he had come up there for in the first place, and ran out door. On the way down the stairs, he past Engineer, who was carrying a red, metallic box.

Scout felt his stomach turn inside of him. A whole world of possibilities and consequences was pouring through his mind. There were small bits of his mind that entertained the ideas that he could gain something from helping her, but those thoughts not only conflicted with his feelings for a certain green-eyed woman, they also did not compare to consequences he may have to face up to. How would his team mates react if they found her? What would happen to his job if the Administrator found out?

He felt his fingers twitch as he took out his scatter gun. He felt an urge to run back up there and shoot her before this became too much of a problem. But he didn't. He just kept running. Running away from something that he felt certain was going to blow up in his face.

**Authors Note: I didn't mean for this chapter to go for so long, but I really hope you guys enjoyed this. I have a clear idea of where I want this story to go, but it's going to take some time for this story to gain enough momentum to get there smoothly. So please! Review! Constructive criticism, advice, and suggestions would really help me grow as a writer and really push this story in the right direction! Thank you so much for reading! **

**P.S. I also feel that parts of this chapter was very rushed and I may revise to make it better later on so if there where things in this chapter that weren't satisfactory give me some suggestions on what I can do to fix it. Thank you!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Forewarning- This chapter contains some violence and a couple of F-bombs.**

**I don't own Team Fortress. Clearly.**

* * *

Scout's day ended with a titanium bat becoming very familiar with the back of his head. Quite intimately apparently since it didn't seem to have the heart to kill him even after caving in his skull, instead it left him writhing in pain on the floor. He could've sworn he was bleeding but when he touched the back of his head he only felt the impression the bat left in his skull.

"Heh heh, sorry about that, man," his rival chuckled with a hint of discomfort in his voice, "Hold still, I'll get it this time."

"How'd you fuck it up the first time, you fuck!" Scout practically cried, but he moved his hands so that his rival would mercifully finish him off. His rival was beginning to laugh hysterically before Scout felt the back of his skull collapse onto his brain.

He found himself surrounded by the white walls of the living corridors intermarry completely out of breath and his heart pounding against his chest. He was greeted by the engineer who was wiping his brow and sighing in relief that the day was finally over.

"Rough day, huh?" He smiled at Scout once he took notice of his demeanor.

"You don't know the half of it," he said in a breathless laugh. He'd been too distracted by the fact that there was a hobo chick waiting for him in a crate that he'd gotten his ass kicked more than usual.

He followed the engineer out of the room and both their stomachs growled in hunger. Engie chuckled, "I think it's Pyro and I's night to cook. We should have something whipped up in about thirty-minutes. An hour at most."

"Alright," Scout replied distractedly, even though the mention of food, especially made by Engie and Pyro since they were typically the only ones who actually tried to make something good, made him glad. Scout's eyes followed the stocky man to the kitchen door until he disappeared behind it.

He sighed and went to go wander around outside. It was too late to try and get Laura or Lori or whatever her name was off the property but he knew he couldn't leave a girl in a wooden crate all night. They were also fighting tomorrow so she couldn't stay on the battlements either. He needed to think of a safer place she could hide for the night.

He wandered around the outside the living corridors trying to think of such a place, though made sure to stay close by since he didn't really want to miss out on dinner. He kicked stones around as he tried to make sense of the situation.

Why didn't he shoot her? He pondered this because he knew he was so bent on shooting her but then it turned out she had... _Boobs_. One of his greatest weaknesses. Girls generally were. Pretty or ugly, he never liked the idea of hurting one, let alone killing one. And it seems he wasn't capable of it either.

With another sigh, he kicked another rock down the side of the hill, and then he noticed a deer path that was barely visible due to fading from lack of use. His eyes traced the path which seemed to go a long distance until completely disappeared behind some large rock formations. Then it stuck him in his mind, he remembered one place that he'd discovered while exploring the property during a cease fire. It was a shed that may have been used for maintenance but it seemed to be rarely used probably on account of it being so far away. It'd definitely be a step up from a wooden crate and it was a good distance away from the battlements and the living corridors. It'd be perfect for a night.

Hopefully for just one night.

Before he could do or think anything else he heard Engie ring the dinner bell. Scout immediately ran toward the living corridors, feeling a little anxious to be amongst his comrades while having such a dangerous secret.

* * *

The mess hall was filled with the heavenly smell of food. Scout's stomach growled at the promise of food and he made a beeline for the dinner line which only consisted of Soldier of Demoman. They must've been getting a head start of getting drunk in the mess hall while everyone was somewhere else doing their own thing, well at least Soldier was getting started on getting drunk, Demo always was. Demo gave him the usual drunken greeting and Soldier begun raving about the days defeat.

"What happened today was completely unacceptable!" Soldier started yelling.

"Yeah, yeah," Scout says quickly, he didn't feel up to dealing with Soldier's usual ridicule, 'We'll do better tomorrow."

"You better hope so, maggot, because another defeat like that is going to earn this entire team a retraining session!"

Scout grunted in response. Soldier always made sure everyone was on top of their game, which wasn't a bad thing, but it did get a bit excessive with the usual workouts. A retraining session on top of that would definitely suck.

He merely rolled his eyes at the crazed patriot and grabbed a plate and silverware that Pyro had just put out. Other teammates were beginning to slowly stream into the mess hall as Engie was beginning to place food out.

"Are you in a hurry, Scout?" Engie said with a curious look, and Scout noticed that he'd been moving his legs like he'd been trying to run in place.

"Uh-eh, just can't wait to eat!" Scout laughed. He's heart was racing in his chest. Engie pulled the cover of off the food to reveal a mixture of noodles and meat all coated in delicious looking cheese.

"Well dig right in then!"

After Demo and Solider got their fill, Scout quickly piled up a mountain of cheesy goodness onto his plate, and then went to go sit on the other side of the mess hall. Most of his teammates raised an eyebrow at him as they got their meals since it was an odd occurrence for Scout to not trying to be the center of attention. Scout really didn't want to socialize, he just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. He scarffed down a spoonful of the stuff, the deliciousness skid over his taste buds and then quickly burned down his throat.

Scout felt an over whelming sense of dread when the tall, slender man entered the mess hall. He shot a glance at the boy as he headed over to get his food. Scout swallowed another bite nervously. He knew he was screwed. There was really no way of keeping secrets from Spy. It was part of his job to get information out of people and he knew when people were hiding things.

And Scout wasn't exactly being the most inconspicuous person either.

He continued to scarf down food and from the upper corner of his eye he watched Spy grab a plate and leisurely load it with food while taking a couple more curious glances at him. Once Spy had gotten what he needed he turned away from the kitchen and stood there for a moment, looking at Scout and contemplating. Scout felt his entire body tense up as he felt Spy's eyes peering into him. He tried his best to relax and to act natural in hopes that the lanky man would pass over him. And just to be safe he filled his head with happy, dumb thoughts because Scout was sure Spy could read minds, and he hoped not to give him anything that'd he'd find interesting.

_Hot chicks, hot chicks, hot chicks, hot chicks, hot chicks... _Spy still stood there though, seemingly unswayed by the thoughts that Scout was trying to broadcast. _Miss Pauling in a bikini..._

Spy had suddenly lost interest in the boy's behavior and finally started moving toward the mess hall doors. He sometimes preferred to eat alone in his room, especially after a defeat.

_It worked!_

Scout breathed a happy sigh of relief. He helped himself to a couple more bites of his dinner before he looked down at his plate and realized that he had already forked down more than half of the food.

Spy was not fully out the mess hall doors when Scout allowed his thoughts to return back to his predicament.

_I bet the poor kid's starvin'_, he thought as it occurred to him that he had left some chick in a crate for maybe eight hours. Well, assuming that she hadn't lost patience and took her risks and left. He actually somewhat hoped that was the case.

"How are you doing, Scout?" Hearing the frenchman's voice made Scout jump in his seat, and almost threw his fork across the room. Spy had apparently refound interest in Scout's behavior.

_Aw crap..._

Scout swallowed hard and then tried to clear his throat. "Ah-Good, good- I'm good." Scout forced a smile to his curious teammate.

Spy smiled back. He twirled his pack around on his plate for a moment. "Well that's _good_ to hear," he said in a forcibly cheerful tone, "but what are you doing over here all alone?" Spy took a small bit of food while giving Scout a questioning look.

"Oh well, you know," Spy's expression became rather irritated because clearly he did not know. Scout had to refrain from punching himself in the face because even he knew how idiotic and suspicious that response was. "I just needa a little a- uh- time to myself... Yeah."

That response was not any better.

"Really?" Spy replied in mocking surprise.

"Huh, yeah... Yeah." The frenchman was not convinced. He placed his plate on the space in front of Scout and pulled out a chair.

_Oh shit..._ Just as Spy was sitting down, Scout quickly shot up from his seat. He was not going to be able to take Spy interrogating him, especially with the rest of the whole team nearby to witness.

"Well, I'm full- And I'd love tah stick around and chit-chat with ya Spy, but I uh- I needa call my ma, it's been a while and she gets really worried about those sorta things, ya know." That was actually true. He hadn't called his mother in a while and he really did need to try to make time to do that later.

"Uh-oh, okay?"

Scout quickly picked up his plate, and begun shuffling toward the door. He felt a rush of guilt and embarrassment wash over him as he felt every eye follow him out of the room.

* * *

After promptly making sure no one had followed him upstairs and that the door to his bedroom was surely locked, Scout quickly searched through his garbage to an old Chinese take-out box and shoveled whatever left over from dinner into it.

He shoved the box into his bag along with the fork he had hastily cleaned by wiping it off with his shirt. He flipped on the lights to make the room seem like it was occupied and then turned on the radio making sure it was loud enough to be heard from outside but quiet enough to not have any of his team mates banging on his door.

Scout threw open the window and then slipped outside.

Scout jogged the half mile to the battlements and just to save time, he jumped down the steep sides that created the battlements dirt walls. He landed with a stinging pain shooting up from his feet to his knees, but he quickly walked it out because it wasn't anything he wasn't used to from jumping from much larger heights.

He made his way down the familiar corridor and slowed his pace as he walked up the stairs. He slowed even more as he walked toward the room with the crate. He still somewhat hoped that she wasn't there, that she had left, because this was not a situation he wanted to be dealing with, but at the same time he kind of looked forward to having someone new to talk to. His team was great and all but they already knew how great was, he needed to share his wonderful personality with someone else so they could know how great he was too.

Scout walked very hesitantly into the room. It was silent except for a couple of birds chirping somewhere in the distance. He took a deep breath and he pried open the crate. As he lifted the lid, he felt both disappointment and relief to see the kid sitting up frozen in the corner of the box. He noticed that her body relaxed slightly as she realized in was him.

"Hi there," Scout tried to say nonchalantly to put a little ease the tension

"Hi," she replied while forcing an uncomfortable smile. She coughed once before she grabbed a handful or her unraveled sleeping bag and tossed it over the side of the crate and then did the same to her backpack. In another moment she swung her legs over the side and hopped to the ground.

"Uh sorry, for uh, takin' so long," Scout said while rubbing the back of his neck while she stretched her legs and rubbed her eyes.

"It's all right," she coughed again while she begun wrapping up her sleeping bag, but this one sounding particularly nasty and wet, "though I was starting to think that you weren't coming back." She secured the sleeping bag into a tight little bundle and hooked it up to her backpack. "I was considering taking my chances since it got quiet for a while."

"Oh really," maybe he shouldn't have come back. _Oh well..._

With a grunt, she hoisted the baggage onto her shoulders and then looked at Scout almost expectingly. "So um, now what?"

Scout blinked at her as if he was somewhat dazed for a moment.

"Oh I-um- I know a place you could-uh- stay for the night," he started as he begun to snap out of it. "If you're interested, I mean."

The kid coughed as she thought it over. "Hmm well..." she seemed to be preparing to decline his offer until she noticed how low the sun was. "Oh, I guess I should stay the night... Thank you."

"Alright," Scout nodded and then started for the door, "Follow me toots."

* * *

**Author's note: I'd like to apologize profusely for how long it took to write this chapter. This chapter was actually supposed to be a lot longer but since it had already taken me a ridiculous amount of time to just to write this much I decided to end it here. **

**Next chapter we'll get to know this hobo a little better, how exciting! Hopefully this next chapter won't take quite as long to write. Regiment season is coming to end in three weeks so hopefully when it's over I'll be able to update this story a little more frequently.**

**Reviews are much appreciated!**

**Thank you guys so much for reading! I really hope you enjoyed it.**


End file.
